


Reveling Rebel

by kattastic99



Series: In Death Are You Redeemed [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: AND not be on his list of people to avoid and or murder, Adam gets flirted with and stops working, Flirting, Gen, Had to make an oc cause I realized, I want him to be bi and ride a dick so OCs were my only option, Is that an actual maybe or am I just saying I don't know if I'll make a spinoff?, M/M, Not hate his guts, Sexual Humor, There's no canon characters that would be in Mantle, Will I write smut in this verse? Maybe, yes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2020-11-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:00:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27441577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kattastic99/pseuds/kattastic99
Summary: At Pietro's gentle insistence, Adam attends a festival for Mantle's winter holiday and definitely doesn't get mugged in the middle of it.
Relationships: Adam Taurus/Original Character(s)
Series: In Death Are You Redeemed [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993420
Kudos: 10





	Reveling Rebel

Adam’s Mantle apartment could have been worse, for sure; it was insulated, it didn’t have any pest problems, all the utilities worked and the rent wasn’t too bad. He’d _absolutely_ had worse living conditions, but being functional didn’t make it a nice place to live. No pest problems, sure, and everything _worked,_ but the tub’s drain had long since lost its plug so showers were his only option and the shower head was some weird rubber nozzle with a lever for pressure control and nothing else; he had to point it at the wall just to keep it from spraying the curtain so hard that the bathroom flooded. The apartment was also _tiny_ , with a single bedroom and bathroom and a closet connected to the living room that the front door opened to, with what you could technically call a kitchen taking up the far end of the apartment completely. The entire building ran on one central heating system that the landlord controlled and, yes, it was nice that the landlord ‘splurged’ on keeping the heat nice and warm. Only problem with that was that she kept it rather high and there wasn’t anything to be done about it if you found yourself sweating like crazy in your underwear because the heater was on full blast. 

Like most days, Adam woke up at six in the morning. He didn’t need an alarm clock, he would wake up at six am by sheer instinct and he’d long stopped trying to un-learn it. It was more useful than it was a problem, that was one of the reasons Adam decided to keep it. Another would probably be the fact that unlearning it would require addressing it and dealing with the reasons he’d developed it in the first place, and that…. That was not going to be happening. He’d let go of his past, and yeah completely suppressing any and all thoughts of it was probably just as unhealthy but every time he thought about his childhood he got the kind of angry he couldn’t get back from very easily. 

It was with a soft grunt of groggy effort that Adam sat up in his bed; it was a twin mattress on an old metal bed frame without a headboard and rather threadbare sheets. He didn’t need a blanket since the heat was always so damn high, and Adam stretched his arms above his head as he yawned so wide his jaw cracked. He rubbed at it with his right hand as he pushed the sheet off his lap where it had gathered when he sat up. His bedroom was tiny but with such a small bed he’d managed to make it a little easier for himself. It wasn’t like he had much to his name to keep in here, and it _was_ just a safe house, but making room for a dresser and a laundry hamper and a tv stand _and_ a garbage can, on top of a bed and a nightstand? Wasn’t easy, especially since Adam also wanted to be able to take more than one step in his own bedroom. 

Adam carefully rubbed his prosthetic eye as he swung his legs over the side of his tiny bed and his feet touched the cheap linoleum floor. When he’d first gotten the thing he’d had a lot of questions about it, wondered if he was supposed to take it out sometimes or something. Turned out that he was supposed to treat it like a regular ol’ eyeball. He’d had it for over a month now, so it moved in sync with his organic one thanks to, something or other Pietro had definitely told him about. Adam reached for the nightstand and grabbed his horn cap. The broken end of his right horn had a mounting screw implanted into it, and he screwed his shiny steel cap into place on it. He’d tried to sleep with it on, but he was too afraid of it getting half unscrewed in his sleep and bending the screw. 

Getting dressed was as easy an affair as it always was when you’re capable of manifesting an active aura; science hadn’t quite figured out why, yet, having an active aura makes your clothes so much more resistant to absorbing sweat and skin oils, but it was a nice benefit to not have to clean your clothes as often because they stayed pristine for so long. It cut down on the amount of lien Adam had had to spend to get a full wardrobe going, he only had to buy like six sets of under-clothes to wear under his new outfit. He stepped out of his boxers and into an identical pair of black boxers, followed by a pair of grey cotton shorts and a simple white t-shirt. Then he put on his fresh fancy new Solitas outfit: warm leather trousers in a nice steel grey, with thick black socks; his new coat, the zipper in the center of the stony grey stripe that took up the center and continued up to the collar which shared the same color, the rest of the jacket a warm almost pastel brown; his gloves, a dark brown the color of coffee beans and closer to driving gloves than something you’d expect to find in winter wear. Adam kept his weapons under his bed, and despite his meticulous arranging and budgeting of space it only took him two steps to cross his bedroom and grab them. Euphrates’ sheath clipped into place on his back at an angle, with the hilt sticking out over his right shoulder and the bottom of the sheath jutting just behind his left hip, and Delta slid into his jacket’s front pocket with ease. As he left his bedroom, he patted at the right side of his chest to make sure his mahogany mask was tucked inside it; he’d had to pay more than he’d have liked to just to have this jacket customized with a special pocket to hold that clunky thing, but it was important that he be able to carry it with him. His disguise was paper thin, consisting entirely of a haircut and not wearing a mask, but humans were pretty bad at picking faunus out of a crowd. Even faunus that had been on the news for domestic terrorism. Sliding his mask on before he got violent gave him another flimsy layer of protection.

Adam tugged his boots on, admiring the way their color matched his gloves as he laced them up. He kept them by the door because he didn’t like dirtying up the floor of his practically barren living room. He gave his apartment one last cursory glance before he headed out the door and locked it behind him. It was just under half past six, so he had plenty of time to get to Pietro’s before the streets got clogged with the winter solstice festival. People usually started setting up tents and awnings at around, ten? In the morning? He’d never exactly paid much attention to the festival; growing up he was barely even allowed _outside_ and he certainly was never permitted to head into the city or even leave the mining complex, and after he escaped he’d fled for Anima as fast as he could before eventually making his way down to Menagerie. 

He was getting better at that, actually, which was unexpected; Adam had barely started to clench his fists as he’d thought about the complete lack of joy or love in his miserable childhood and _there_ was that boiling black pit of rage. Adam paused with his hand on the door of the lobby of his apartment building, just taking a couple deep breaths and slamming the lid back on that fun little jar of horrors. He lifted his head and turned to glance at the wall of mailboxes, eyes locking onto his own and seeing that it was marked as empty just like always. Well, not _always,_ but the only things he ever got in the mail were letters from the landlord that everybody got, bills, and the occasional predatory credit advertisements and even more predatory military recruitment fliers. Adam sighed and pushed the door open, getting blasted with barely chilly air as he headed outside. It may have been the winter solstice but Mantle’s heating systems ensured that nobody ever had to care. 

The city slowly rumbled to life around him as he walked the seventeen blocks between his apartment and Pietro’s office. From his own apartment the sky wasn’t visible thanks to Atlas, but Pietro’s office was closer to the far edge of Mantle and you could actually see about half of the sky. A quick glance above showed Adam a fairly clear sky from the roughly half of it that he could see, with the rest of his view obstructed by the floating city of Atlas, because it wasn’t enough that they claimed the money and the resources and even the people of Mantle, they’d even claimed the sky. Adam stopped a block away from Pietro’s office and glanced at the nearest Atlas-installed propaganda screen or whatever the hell they were actually called; General Ironwood’s message, one of seemingly infinite empty platitudes beseeching the people of Mantle to continue to sacrifice their very lives for the sake of, and Adam was only guessing here but going by the history of the Atlas military he was fairly confident in his guess, literally nothing but lining Ironwood’s pockets. Well, that wasn’t really fair; it could be for political power instead! 

After checking his surroundings and making sure the security camera for this monitor was looking the other way, Adam drew Euphrates and sliced cleanly through the power line keeping the monitor and its endless messages running, and then he sheathed his sword and headed over to his ‘day job.’ Pietro didn’t actually call him in to work quite literally ever, but he insisted on paying Adam for every hour he spent ‘volunteering.’ It was, nice, he supposed. He’d even been given a key to Pietro’s office, which he had to use when he found that for some unknown reason the Atlesian doctor wasn’t in his Mantle office, in the pharmacy he also just volunteered at, at six in the morning on a government holiday. As he opened the door, he heard the ringing of a small bell and looked up to see a little brass bell hanging just above the door. Adam was suddenly unbearably aware that Pietro _must_ have had it installed recently and purely because Adam had mentioned always expecting one, and he….. Really didn’t know how to feel about that, so he tossed it into one of countless jars, bottled it up nice and tight, and put it on the ‘probably examine eventually’ shelf next to every other emotion Pietro instilled in him.

Without any real point to staying but with many real reasons to not want to go back outside to a city he didn’t want to become too attached to full of people he didn’t want to interact with and a day full of literally nothing for him to do, Adam decided to clean Pietro’s office while he waited for the man to show up. On a government holiday, that was all about celebrating with your loved ones and your community in case you didn’t make it to the coming spring, which was as real a risk today as it had been a thousand years ago when these festivals first started. The reasons were different (except for the universal grimm problem) but the fact remained that winter was the harshest month on this already incredibly harsh continent, and odds were high that either someone you know or someone who lived nearby wasn’t going to make it. And unlike Adam, Pietro had a lot of people that he not only cared a great deal about but who returned those feelings. If he was being honest with himself and he did his best to both strive to be and ignore many many things that troubled him so that was a pretty mixed bag, Pietro was really the only person around that Adam truly cared about. He could at least come to terms with _that_ much, although he was still deciding if he was mad about it or not. 

You were supposed to make a gift, or at least Adam was pretty sure that was one of the main traditions. Again, never really had a reason or chance to celebrate this holiday, but cultural osmosis was still a thing even down in the mines. He knew gifts were involved, at least, and he was struck with the realization that he didn’t have one for Pietro because of course he didn’t why would he think to honor the only person in recent memory to give much of a damn whether or not Adam dropped dead on the floor that was just ridiculous. Of course it was just as he started to panic about it that he had an idea for a shoddy and not very good present that he was at least _hopeful_ Pietro would deeply appreciate, and he scurried around the cluttered office for a blank bundle of papers and a pencil. Adam had to drag the rickety old chair that came with the desk back over to it so he could sit down and get to work, but it wasn’t long before his idea was coming together. Pietro had been _fascinated_ with the make of his switchblade’s dust reservoir, and while he was a little hesitant to share any techniques he’d personally helped invent with even the objectively best member of the Atlesian military, Adam knew that Pietro would appreciate this. He hoped so, at least. Honestly he was just glad that the easiest information had to do with oil compositions and ratios and which specific density oils worked best as mediums for which specific kind of dust. That took up three pages, and the other seven ended up being filled with the circuitry and complex technology that allowed the switchblade to lock onto and channel one layer of dust-saturated oil at a time. This part had mostly been the blacksmith he’d hired, but if you didn’t know how your own weapon worked then you wouldn’t have that weapon for long because you’d be unable to maintain it so he knew how it was structured and how it worked. He just couldn’t come up with something remotely like it to save his own life. 

When he was done, Adam didn’t really know what to do; part of him had kind of expected Pietro to show up as he finished, as illogical as that was. He spent a good ten minutes looking for a stapler before he finally found one in the drawer of yet another cluttered little desk. Then he _actually_ had nothing to do, so he wandered over to the bookshelf by the back stairs and finally gave the spines a look-see. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but an entire bookshelf full of fairy tales, children’s stories and nursery rhymes definitely wasn’t on the list. Even Adam had heard most of these, but some of the books looked to be older than Pietro and seemed to be stories that he’d never heard of. Not one to snoop when he wasn’t planning something, Adam just grunted and turned around to walk back into the office. There still wasn’t any sign of Pietro, so he sat down on the examination table and pulled out his scroll. He only had a couple of mobile games on the old thing, but it was enough to pass the time. He tried to keep his eye on the time but he only had the one, after all, and while the game he was playing wasn’t exactly great it was just engaging enough to suck him in. Adam’s concentration was eventually broken by the jingling of the door’s new bell, and he fumbled to close the game and stash his scroll as fast as he could. He looked up to see Pietro pushing the door open, his gaze not yet locked onto Adam, so Adam scurried over to the desk where he’d put his gift packet down and grabbed it. 

Pietro’s face lit up with a smile when his chair walked in and he saw Adam standing there, clearly waiting for him. But that smile had something else to it, and while Adam couldn’t quite put a name to what he was seeing he knew that it was probably something he didn’t deserve to have leveled at him. He was holding the packet of papers behind his back, standing still as a statue as Pietro approached him. “Seth!” Pietro said with a smile, “I’m glad you’re here! I was hoping to run into you today.” Pietro’s smile softened, and he asked “Are you alright? I imagine this holiday is a little, overwhelming, but I truly do hope that you can come to enjoy it.”

Adam swallowed, and shifted where he stood. “Yes, I’m fine, Pietro. I, must admit, yes, that I’m not accustomed to celebrating this, but. Well, I at least know that it’s traditional to make a gift. I didn’t have much, or any real ideas, so I did my best on the spot.” Adam slid the papers out from behind his back and offered them to Pietro with a nervous gaze. “I know it’s not much at all, but I remembered you expressing interest so I thought you might appreciate these.”

Pietro beamed at him as he took the packet of papers, but when he started reading the page on top that smile turned into a shocked expression of joy. “Oh, Seth,” he said in a quiet awed tone, “this is- I don’t have words to thank you!” he exclaimed as he looked up at Adam with the happiest smile Adam had seen on him yet, which was quite the accomplishment. “I’m definitely going to be going over these in depth when I have the chance,” Pietro said as he carefully tucked the papers into a storage compartment that opened up on the side of his chair with a push of a button, “but right now there are a couple of things I wanted to talk about.” Pietro didn’t close that storage compartment, and instead slid his hand further into it before pulling it out with an odd, intricate looking contraption in his hand. “First is the gift I made for _you,_ ” Pietro said as he offered it to Adam who took it with a quiet sense of shock. “It’s a, well, a specialized holster I suppose you could say.” Pietro reached over and pointed at a socket of some sorts on the device, which was shaped almost like an arm brace. “Your switchblade should fit snugly into this slot, here,” he said, “and you put this holster on your arm underneath your coat. It should allow you to retrieve and stash your switchblade much quicker, more subtly, and much easier. It’s not much, but I thought you could use something like this.”

Adam turned the thing over and over in his hands, scarcely able to breathe for several moments. He didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, why Pietro cared so damned much about him. Pietro knew who he was, who he used to be, knew what he’d done and still he not only continued to offer Adam emotional support and warmth but actively assisted him in many ways. The Belknap assassination had hit the news like an entire freighter full of bricks, there was no way a man as smart as Pietro hadn’t been able to put two and two together, and yet he continued to care. “I… Thank you,” Adam whispered. He rolled up the right sleeve of his coat and slid the little brace on, after Pietro pointed out the release mechanism to open it. It fit like a glove, and Adam pulled his switchblade out of its pocket and slid it into its new home. His coat sleeve rolled back over it and even though he knew exactly where it was not even Adam could notice any sign of it. He flicked his arm and the switchblade rolled down the brace and into his palm, and then he tucked it back up into the holster with his middle finger and flicked his arm back up. It retracted back up beneath his coat, slick as ice in spring. Adam looked up, and Pietro was smiling so warmly, and Adam….. Adam had no idea what to do, what to say. Things like this used to come so easy to him, before. But they’d been easy because he knew nothing mattered, that everyone was just saying what they were supposed to and nothing actually meant anything. It was so, _so_ much harder to say things that mattered. 

“Happy Solstice, Seth,” Pietro said as he reached over and patted Adam’s arm gently. “Now, I’d like you to do me a favor.” 

Adam nodded. “Of course, Pietro.” There was a lot that Adam would do for this man, and the list of things he wouldn’t do for him was much shorter. 

Pietro’s smile gained a hint of mischievousness that Adam was honestly proud of being able to recognize, an emotion that faded quickly as he realized that it boded very poorly indeed for him, a fear that was quickly proven correct. “I want you to go out today, join the festivities, mingle a little. You’ve been cooped up in my empty office all morning, and while being alone with your thoughts is well and good there comes a point where you’re only self-isolating. The nearest heating vent for the city streets is only a block away, and there’s already a good dozen tents or so set up. I know I saw several cider stands being set up, but I’m also rather certain that I saw someone selling caramel candies.” Pietro chuckled. “Well, they’re selling all sorts of sweets, but I know which one you’ll care about.” His expression softened, became almost pleading, and Adam knew he wouldn’t be able to say no. “Please, Seth. Some company and celebration would be good for you.”

Adam sighed, and then he nodded. “Alright, Pietro, I’ll go….. Mingle.” Adam spat the word out like it was poison, and Pietro chuckled at his clear distaste. “But,” Adam said, “there’s something I’d like to ask you in return.” Pietro nodded, and Adam swallowed. “When we’re alone, and nobody is around to hear us…. Call me Adam.”

Pietro smiled, and reached out with both hands to gently clasp Adam’s own. “Of course, Adam.” Then he let go with a smile, and moved out of Adam’s way. “Now please, go have some fun! It’s the Solstice!” 

Adam grumbled a bit, but he walked over to the door anyways. When he opened it, he turned back to give Pietro a soft smile and a wave goodbye, which Pietro returned, and then Adam pulled the door open with a jingle of the bell and walked outside. The first thing he noticed was that the inactive screen, which had been broadcasting propaganda non stop for months until Adam broke it this morning, was already completely covered in graffiti. It was times like this that gave Adam hope for a better future. He couldn’t hold back the grin that overtook his face, and anybody who might have seen him wouldn’t have blamed him. Not with that brand so clear on his face. Adam turned and saw that Pietro had actually under-sold the size of the gathering in the street down the block by the heating vent; considering there was a tent full of chairs and a table stacked high with food and drinks not even twenty feet from Pietro’s door, Adam would have to say that this particular cluster was well over five blocks big. He stood there, puzzled, for all of five seconds before he realized why this specific vent would have possibly the largest gathering around it; you could see the sky from here. 

Taking a deep breath for composure, Adam strode into the loose and happy crowd. Most people he passed by paid him no mind at all, and those that did simply waved a hello at him. His knowledge of this holiday was lacking, but he wasn’t completely ignorant; early in the day you exchanged the things you made for those you loved, and later in the day you celebrated with your peers and neighbors. The night time celebrations were, something, Adam was the foggiest about that bit out of everything. Despite being in Mantle for a couple months now, he hadn’t exactly made any friends. He also hadn’t made any enemies though, which was impressive considering how many people he’d killed! Then again, they can’t be your enemies if they don’t survive. And, of course, there were already several wanted posters for the new masked man committing robberies and murders all across Mantle, and the Atlas Assassin was gaining a much more rapid notoriety. But none of these were Seth Umber, the branded bull faunus who volunteered for Pietro a lot and spent a fair amount of time in the Frozen Lily, the only faunus owned bar in Mantle that refused to serve a single human customer. After years of bars and restaurants using the right to refuse service to get around the laws prohibiting the banning of faunus, Adam personally loved the Frozen Lily for daring to flip the script on people. Humans could go to literally every single other bar in the city, and they still got exceptionally angry at being refused service based on their race. The bar wasn’t even that good, Adam only went there to get a little tipsy and have a bit of a breather from humans. 

So, nice as it was to be greeted warmly by humans who sometimes even asked him to sit down and share a glass of traditional spiced cider, Adam found his feet taking him in the direction of the Frozen Lily. He did take a moment to stop at a tent selling grilled sandwiches, though, since he’d kind of skipped, well…. Any food at all since six in the morning when he woke up, and it was almost noon. He ended up buying a second one when he realized how hungry he really was after he started that first one. 

The festival thinned out eventually as he made it to the edge of this gathering, and a glance up at the sky proved his theory right when he saw that the crowd thinned out right around the place where Atlas took up too much of the sky for you to see a single full cloud. Adam lowered his gaze back to the street ahead of him as he walked, and found himself surprised by the sight of a different gathering much further ahead. As he got closer the smell of hard cider and bar food wafted through the air, and his suspicions were confirmed when the Frozen Lily came into view; it was barely visible but from what he could see it was clearly closed, because the two brothers that owned and ran it had taken everything outside for the festival. Just in front of the bar was one of the largest tents Adam had seen yet, basically just a massive cloth roof on four tall poles. Underneath it were a lot of tables arranged in front of a collection of outdoor grills and at least four kegs of hard cider. Well, Adam was assuming that’s what was in the kegs going by the fact that was the only drink he was seeing people enjoying. There was a cash register on the table right in front of the grills and kegs, behind which stood the faunus Adam had honestly kind of hoped to see today; Viridian Vespid. As much as they all hated the stereotype of faunus being criminals, it was an unfortunate truth that many faunus simply didn’t have any other choice and were forced to turn to illegal activities to survive. Viridian and his brother may have owned a bar, and it truly was a legitimate bar, but they were also running one of the largest smuggling rings in Mantle; the transport Adam had bribed to smuggle him into Solitas was one of theirs, which was why Viridian was one of very few people in Mantle Adam actually knew. 

When he got within view of Viridian, the other faunus waved at him and beckoned him closer. Viridian Vespid was a lanky man to say the least, nearly six and a half feet tall and anybody who’d met him would swear a good half of that height was his legs alone. His hair probably would have reached just underneath his ears if it wasn’t always so damned messy, those black strands mussed up and always falling into his face to be brushed back carelessly. His eyes were green, his skin probably would have been olive toned if he’d ever spent any time in the sun, and the crown jewel on this disaster had to be the large, spindly pair of antennae that sprouted from his forehead at his hairline. They stuck up and crooked down at their joint, the rounded ends dangling six inches out from his thin eyebrows. If you weren’t paying attention, it would appear that they kind of hung limply and swayed with the movements of his head, but Adam paid close to attention to everything and knew they were always moving and in fact were very twitchy and responsive; Viridian was just very careful to make it _look_ like they didn’t do anything. Humans were already shitty about faunus traits, and for some reason they were especially hateful towards faunus with non mammalian traits, but none garnered more animosity than insects. Insect faunus were very rare, for reasons Adam wasn’t going to think about right now because he was in public and murder was illegal. And there weren’t any humans in this crowd anyways so the point was kinda moot.

“Seth!” Viridian said with a grin as he leaned over the makeshift counter, “It’s so nice to see you, I wasn’t sure if you’d stop by!” Viridian’s antennae twitched ever so subtly, and Adam knew that he was trying to get a better sense of him; while he wasn’t very close with Viridian, Adam didn’t like going into things without looking into the people he was relying on, and he’d done a lot of research on insects. He was pretty sure Viridian’s antennae were of a wasp or something close to it, so they were good for scents and tastes but on a very different level than his nose or tongue; it was likely a combined and unique sense that neither Adam nor anybody _without_ antennae could ever truly understand, but Adam at least knew that it was both powerful and sensitive. Odds were good that Viridian knew he’d come from Pietro’s from the medical cleaners in the office alone. “The Solstice is a pretty busy holiday, but!” Viridian’s grin shifted into a smirk as he pulled back and grabbed a cup from the stack sitting between the register and what must have been Viridian’s water bottle, and he turned back to one of the kegs. “Just for you,” he said as he filled the plastic cup with cider and turned back to hand it to Adam who took it with an air of confusion, “I’d be happy to spare a cup or two for free. It’s the season of giving and all!” 

Adam took a slow sip and tried not to wince; the spiced cider was delicious and all, but this was also a little stronger an alcoholic drink than he usually had and the burn was significant. “I was under the impression Solstice gifts were supposed to be hand-made,” Adam said as he raised his unbranded brow. Judging by the look on Viridian’s face, though, that was probably not the response he should have went with, because anybody who looked that happy to be questioned had ulterior motives. 

“Well,” Viridian said as his smile melted into a smirk and he wrapped his slender fingers around his water bottle, “if you’d like a present that comes from my hands…” Adam watched as Viridian began to slide his hand up the water bottle, his fingers moving over the plastic and just barely touching it, and- Oh. **Oh.** Adam glanced up at Viridian’s face and saw him grin, he must have been watching Adam’s face, and he said “I can certainly think of a rather… _intimate_ gift I’d be more than happy to give you.” Then the taller man winked, and Adam couldn’t really do anything but stare. For a good ten seconds, Adam’s flustered silence only seemed to amuse Viridian further, but as Adam continued to just stand there and stare, red in the face and only getting more and more flustered as he continued to fail to come up with something to say in response, his expression fell. “I mean,” Viridian muttered as he was very suddenly looking everywhere except at Adam, “U-uh…” He was drumming his fingers on the table, eyes flickering every which way and his antennae twitching nervously as he seemed to desperately search for a change in topic. “Heh, uh, sorry about that, I guess,” Viridian finally settled for with a shrug. He turned to look Adam in the eye again, apology written clear across his face. “Thought you were cute the day we met in person, y’know, figured now was as good a time to go for it as ever.” Then he popped the cap on his water bottle with a single swipe of his thumb and took a heavy swig. He probably didn’t mean to slam it back down on the table, but that’s what happened. He was even blushing now, pink dusting his cheeks and spreading to his ears and almost to the base of his antennae. “What d’ya say I just give you another cup of cider for free and we happily pretend this never happened?”

Adam still hadn’t said a thing, had barely even _moved,_ so he took the moment to sip at his cider again. Then he opened his mouth and said “I just started this one,” holy shit what the fuck why the _fuck_ was that the first thing he said in the past minute, oh Brothers above say something else, “I don’t think I’ll need a second.” That was worse! That was _worse_ , backpedal, backpedal like it was the only thing that would keep Remnant from being swallowed by the sun! “Not that I even wanted one, though!” Adam clacked his jaw shut and tried not to spontaneously combust. At least Viridian seemed more confused than upset, that was a plus, maybe he could spin this as some kind of traumatic brain injury or possession. “I’m really sorry,” Adam said as he stared at Viridian’s left antenna because eye contact would be fatal right now, “I’m just- I-” Adam didn’t sip at his cider so much as he chugged the entire rest of the cup at once. “I don’t exactly have a good, uh, track record, with dating. I honestly can’t say that I’m really looking to get involved again any time soon.” There, see, that wasn’t so hard!

Viridian quirked a brow, the antenna above it straightening a bit, and he wasn’t smirking at least but that still boded very poorly for Adam’s constitution. “Well, that’s perfectly fair,” he said, and Adam relaxed a little. “But if you’re ever in the mood for a quick fuck or something, hit me up yeah? This doesn’t have to be anything more than two acquaintances having some fun together, you know?” Viridian shrugged, and he wasn’t really _smirking_ but that definitely wasn’t a normal smile either. “Just something to keep in mind.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to be leaving Adam’s mind _any_ time soon, and all he could really do was nod and turn around to escape with Viridian’s chuckle sounding at his back. Adam went to walk away, but then he paused. As, well, _forward_ as Viridian was about that, he had to admit that there _was_ an appeal there. If he was going to date somebody like Viridian he’d have to do a whole lot of self examination, untangle a lot of things he’d rather not touch right now or any time soon. But some one night stands, some quick flings, that was something else entirely. He hadn’t exactly had the time or the desire to explore this kind of thing in the past, between the all consuming rage that he had at least part of a handle on now and then, well, _everything_ with his time in the White Fang, he’d kinda been too focused on his goals to really. Be a person, and do things for leisure. It was work, work, _work,_ always working no matter what, every second of every day spent trying to further his goals in some way or another. His entire life had been a dance, a play he’d put on for reasons he’d never even stopped to consider, and casual sex with literally _anybody_ was a distraction and a vulnerability he couldn’t afford. 

Lost in his thoughts, Adam wandered aimlessly through the crowd of drunken or tipsy patrons, just letting each step take him forward wherever that may lead. Adam had never really been one to look inside himself and ask questions about what he saw and why it was there, he’d been laser-focused in his hate for so long. Ignoring the subject that he didn’t want to think about and focusing on his attraction, Adam had to admit that he’d kind of just buried it his entire life. In the mines there was no point because there was no point to anything, and after the mines he’d been far too messed up to think about it. After things calmed down, when he joined the White Fang, he’d certainly found some people attractive. But he buried those feelings because, like before, it didn’t matter; nothing mattered besides forcing the world to change, besides advancing the freedom of his people. Now he knew that making progress was not his place, his place in this world was to remove the rotten and festering blights on the world to make room for the new, and it left him with more freedom to live a real life than he’d ever thought he would have. Adam thought of the women he’d seen that he had found alluring, Robyn Hill being the most relevant one. Winter Schnee was also rather attractive but he would rather cut his own torso in half than fraternize with _her._ All things considered she probably felt the same. The type of woman he was drawn to was a strong one, with conviction and will and an indomitable drive to further their cause. 

Viridian met exactly none of these qualities, but Adam was beginning to realize that the type of _men_ he was into was very different; intelligence and wit, dexterity and cunning, a body better fit for running and dodging than for standing and fighting, these were qualities Viridian _did_ have in spades and they were qualities that Adam found…. Fascinatingly attractive. That Adam himself didn’t fit into either of these molds was something to think about, perhaps, but not at the moment. He was seriously considering taking Viridian up on his offer, at least once, just to see how it went. Plus, if it went well, Adam could definitely use that to coax some favors out of the man; Viridian and his brother weren’t a joke, and while they may not have been warriors fit to take on even the weakest of grimm, they fought the battle of manipulation and persuasion _extremely_ well. Getting up to Atlas for recon and execution missions would be much easier if Viridian was more disposed to doing his some favors here and there, and this was a much easier way to do that than just paying him for it. Hell, it could even actually be fun! He’d just have to see how the first time went, if he did in fact decide to do this which he’d kind of already talked himself into doing. 

He was just beginning to imagine what Viridian might look like under his dark green vest and white undershirt when somebody stepped out in front of him. Adam had been so lost in thought that he genuinely had no idea where he’d ambled his way over to, but a quick glance around only told him that he was in some tucked away back-alley. Seeing as Mantle was composed of nearly twenty percent tucked away back-alleys, this wasn’t incredibly useful. 

Then Adam noticed the cruel smirk on the stranger’s face, as well as the gun that was currently aimed at his chest. That was an important piece of information, to be sure. Another important piece of information was that as Adam turned around he saw two more people sliding out of their hiding places to stand in the way of the passage he’d just come from, boxing him in. These ones were holding bats, but it didn’t matter. He turned back around and sighed. “What is this?” The reaction to his tired and annoyed tone of voice was a nasty little chuckle from the man in front of him, as well as that gun being raised. 

“It’s called a robbery, you dumb cow. Now,” the man said as he stepped closer. “Here’s what happens; you give us your wallet, and your sword, and we don’t beat you half to death. Or,” he said with a grin, “You fight back, we kick your ass, and then I put a bullet in your skull.” Adam didn’t scowl on purpose, but he felt his face twist into one before he’d even noticed. “Seems I struck a nerve, huh?” the mugger said with a happy little lilt to his voice. “Was it the death threat or the cow thing? Cause, I mean,” the guy shrugged, “you’re even branded! What am I supposed to do, stop calling a trash can a trash can?” 

Self defense laws were a little iffy down in Mantle, especially when it came to a faunus defending himself from three humans, but the fact that they had a gun and he didn’t meant that, honestly? He could probably legally get away with killing these people. Hell there wasn’t a ‘probably’ about it, as loathe as he was to admit it Adam knew that Pietro would help him out with the legal system. Loathe was a little weak of a word for his feelings on knowing that most faunus would be imprisoned for defending themselves in this situation, and he’d gotten lucky enough to form a connection to an Atlesian elite that wasn’t garbage, but removing these three people from the world would only be doing a mantle a favor. 

Of course that was when Adam started to really scrutinize these people, preparing for combat, and he noticed the quality of their clothes; namely that there wasn’t much to speak of. The gun the guy in front of him was holding looked downright ancient, and a glance backwards at the goons blocking him in revealed that those bats probably came right out of the garbage. That said, they’d still singled him out as a target because of his horns, knowing that even if he fought back they’d likely be safe. They probably thought he was self-trained, and figured their street experience would be enough. The leader, or at least Adam was pretty sure he was the leader since he was the only one with a gun, got his attention by stepping into his personal space and pressing the barrel against his forehead. “I guarantee you, you lost little cow, that if you try to fight us you’ll be going into the ground. Now hand it over.”

Adam flicked his wrist just so, causing Delta to slide into his hand in such a way that he was able to press the release button for the blade in the same fluid movement. “You know, I almost feel bad about this.” Delta lit up like a torch, but before he could go to stab him the mugger pulled the trigger. At such point blank range, the bullet slammed Adam’s head backwards hard enough to make his neck crick, but it fell from his flickering red aura and landed on the ground as he took a step back. Before the man could recover from the brief moment of surprise, Adam ducked his head back down and stepped forwards, slashing Delta across the man’s throat. He had an active aura of his own that flashed a pale orange, and Adam heard the two behind him shout in alarm and run forwards. He brought his foot up and kicked the leader in the chest so hard that he went flying backwards into the far wall, his aura shattering from the impact. “Amateur,” he grumbled as he swiped Delta’s blade back into its hilt and pulled it back up his sleeve with another flick. He turned around, grabbing the bottom of Euphrates’ sheath with his left hand and yanking it off his back. He swung it so that the hilt was pointed towards the goon that was closest to him, their bat raised, and he activated the gravity dust circuits. Euphrates was ejected from its sheath and darted through the air hilt-first to slam into the goon’s bat, raised to block. It spun in the air, the gravity dust in its cross-guard keeping it from falling but not from spinning, and Adam dashed forwards to grab it. He slid the end of Euphrates into its sheath to block the swing from goon number one, the blade absorbing the kinetic energy as dependably as always, and Adam took the opportunity to kick the man in the stomach. Aura or not, the impact was enough to make him double over as a murky green flickered around the point of impact, and Adam slammed the sheath into the side of his head and sent him flying across the dirty ground. His aura shattered when he slammed into a dumpster, and then there was one. 

That one looked pretty pissed off, though, and a lot closer than Adam had thought he was; the man swung his bat and hit Adam in the side, but what really surprised him was the strength behind it; he didn’t know what the guy’s semblance was but it had to have put a bigger punch into his swing than it would’ve had otherwise because it sent Adam flying. Acrobatic prowess was all that let Adam rotate just in time to plant his feet on the far brick wall instead of slamming into it face-first, and he launched off it to soar over the mugger’s head and land on his feet about a yard behind him. That semblance made the guy faster too, though, judging by the bat already swinging for his face, and Adam had no choice but to duck under it and slam the hilt of Euphrates into the man’s chest just under his armpit. All it got him was a flash of pink aura and a grunt, before the mugger kicked him up to a second story window. Luckily he’d slammed into the brick just beside it, but he’d hit it with his back and his aura was flickering like crazy. 

Before Adam could even let himself fall and land on his feet, that bastard had jumped right for him and slammed his bat into the brick so hard it shattered, the shrapnel tearing through Adam’s aura and the force of the impact sending him crashing to the ground. He felt a trickle of blood seep from a cut on his face before his aura flashed and sealed it up. He was getting annoyed, now, and honestly this fight was dragging on way too long. Adam drew Euphrates as the world dimmed, and the mugger slowed down. Red arcs of aura crackled off his frame as he dashed forwards, Euphrates gleaming as bright as the sun as he swung. He’d concentrated all the energy into the blade itself, not into a wave, and that shining strip of blue in the colorless world around him passed through the mugger’s bat like it wasn’t even there. Time sped back up, his semblance deactivating without a sound as he followed up that swing with one with his sheath, smashing into the goon’s arm and catching under the armpit to send him flying. The man smashed into the same wall he’d knocked Adam into, his aura shattering even before both halves of his bat clattered to the concrete. 

Adam slid Euphrates into its sheath and clipped it onto his back with a grunt. All of their auras were down, and they all looked to be either unconscious or too exhausted to get up. He could easily kill the lot of them now, and again he was aware that he wouldn’t be punished for doing it. What reason was there to spare them?

What reason was there to _kill_ them?

They were done, no longer a threat, and yes Adam had killed many people like this before. But when he’d done that, he had done it to lessen the number of human lives on Remnant, because every single human was an enemy that he had to remove. Everyone was a liar, and a monster, no matter what they pretended to be, because Adam knew deep in his heart that everyone was selfish and would always be so when nobody was watching. Kindness was a lie people told the world and even themselves, but who they were in the dark was always the same. And he had been wrong. He knew that, now, just as he knew these three idiots were desperate. Racist, still, and not exactly deserving of mercy, but while they targeted him for bullshit reasons the reason they were mugging people was very much real; they didn’t have much of a choice. So, Adam decided he would spare them, and five minutes later he walked back out of that little hiding spot with the contents of three wallets tucked into his jacket pocket. Odds were good at least _some_ of it was stolen, and even if none of it was Adam was taking it anyways. Because fuck ‘em. 

He could understand it, having to steal. What he couldn’t understand was stealing from the equally desperate and needy; Adam stole from the elite, the people with more money than any person could ever even spend, taking the stolen and hoarded wealth of nations and putting it to use instead of letting it rot in stagnation for no damn reason. When he was done in Solitas, _if_ could ever truly be done, and he felt that there was no longer a need for him….. Maybe he’d go to Mistral. There was a clan down there that anybody who’d so much as stepped foot in Minstral had at least _heard_ of, a tribe of nomads who cared precious little for the laws of any kingdom let alone the one the continent had been claimed by. The White Fang branch in Mistral had come to an understanding with them, although there was no way for him to know if the new White Fang had kept that. Probably more importantly, he didn’t know if the tribe would keep it for the new one either. He knew they accepted faunus, at least, and he knew they operated under similar tenets as he did; bystanders were given the choice to comply, or the choice to fight them. What happened after that was up to them, in the end. 

These were thoughts for a far off future that probably wasn’t going to come, though, and all Adam needed to focus on right now was finding his way back to the festival, preferably the gathering by the Frozen Lily. Adam wasn’t exactly sure how long he’d spent lost in thought before those muggers broke him out of it, but the streets were a little darker than they had been. That didn’t mean too much though, with Atlas blocking so much of the sky a large portion of Mantle was _always_ in its shadow and most of the rest of the city got dark an hour or more before the sun actually set. 

Thanks to the streets being basically deserted outside of the huge gatherings around the city’s heater vents, it was easy enough to find the gathering by sound alone. When the streets were this quiet, the sound of hundreds of people having a block party were kind of hard to miss, and the one he was looking for also had the bonus of a lot of those people being drunk. Adam rounded a corner to see the Lily’s crowd being even rowdier than when he’d left, at least in parts. A good portion of them seemed to have calmed down a lot, but odds were good that some of them were just trying not to vomit or fall over. Adam himself was barely tipsy, but he’d never really been able to tell when he was drunk. Even the time he’d gotten the drunkest he’d ever been, and he almost fell over getting out of a chair, he hadn’t really felt noticeably drunk. Didn’t feel much of anything those days, though. 

A faint buzzing sound rapidly growing louder and louder were his only warnings before Adam was nearly knocked over by a faunus with shimmering insect wings flying at what must have been full speed towards the bar. Luckily for Adam he’d dodged out of the way by instinct; unluckily for the scaled young woman he’d basically body-checked into her friend, though, instinct was instinctive and just about the opposite of thoughtful. She whipped around to smack him, but he ducked to the side and she kept spinning, wobbling on her feet and damn near falling over before her friend grabbed her to keep her steady. Adam took the opportunity to bail and made his way to the bar. 

To his surprise, Viridian was not alone behind the table they were using as a bar for this little gathering; the faunus that had nearly blindsided him stood beside him, those wings reflecting the dim light in a vast array of iridescent colors, like an oil slick on water. Underneath the glimmer, though, the flesh itself was a translucent off-white, if flesh was even the right word for what those were made of. They moved, but they weren’t buzzing, just fluttering lazily and sliding up and down as the guy they were attached to talked to Viridian. He must have pouted or something because his wings slid down completely, resting against his back like a cloak only for the joints to rotate and raise them back up again. The wings themselves didn’t have any joints, but the joints that connected them to the guy’s back seemed to have almost an almost limitless range of motion. Adam had no idea how his white shirt and icy blue jacket were altered so his wings could fit through the tiny gaps around those joints, but that wasn’t exactly his problem. Adam walked up to the pair with a neutral expression, and caught the tail-end of their conversation before Viridian hushed him. “ _You’re_ the one who wanted to have shifts as the bartender, I told you we had to work at the damn thing but-”

Viridian was at least polite enough not to actually put his hand over the other guy’s mouth, but honestly it was pretty clear who he was so Adam didn’t know why he bothered; between the insect traits, the same skin tone and even the same black hair, it didn’t take a genius to tell this was Viridian’s brother, and the co-owner of the Frozen Lily. “Yeah yeah yeah, hush,” was all Viridian said as he turned to greet Adam. “Seth, I’m glad you dropped by again! I was hoping you’d stick around for the fireworks tonight.” 

Adam reached into his front pocket and pulled out the stack of lien he’d grabbed off the muggers and counted out fifty, stashing the remainder and sliding the bills across the table. “How much cider does this get me?” 

Viridian quirked a brow and raised an antenna but grabbed the lien and opened the register to put it away. “Ten regular, seven hard, and two that we can’t legally classify as a beverage. What’ll it be?” Viridian’s brother looked amused, although he did have his arms crossed somewhat standoffishly. 

Adam shrugged. “Ten non alcoholic ciders, then, but I just want one right now.” 

“Okay, well, we don’t run tabs during the festival because we’re outside and you could just run,” said the winged man, “but you’re pretty hot so I’ll allow it.” He was smirking now, and he uncrossed his arms to lean over the table and offer his hand for Adam to shake. “Hi, Lazulite Vespid, co-owner of the Frozen Lily and Viridian’s older brother, I don’t think we’ve had the chance to really talk before.” 

Adam shook his hand, surprised at how rough his skin was. “I’m sure you’ve seen me at the bar before,” he pointed out, and Lazulite shrugged in response. 

“I see lots of people at the bar, I’m usually kinda checked out when I’m working.” It took more strength of will than Adam thought he had not to mention that it was apparent, considering he’d almost knocked Adam over not five minutes ago. 

Viridian had went and filled a cup with cider while that wonderful little talk was happening, and he handed it to Adam with a smile. Something was off about it, but Adam couldn’t place what it was. Adam took a drink, enjoying the taste more than he thought he would after he’d had the alcoholic version. The burn of booze really killed a lot of it, it turned out. “So, Viridian,” he said, and Viridian didn’t jump exactly but Adam saw his antennae twitch pretty badly. “I’ve been thinking. About your offer, I mean,” and Adam could literally _feel_ his cheeks heat up as he tried with all his might not to look away, “and I uh. Not, not tonight or anything, but.” He lost the battle and looked at the table intently, taking a hasty sip of cider as if that would help him get this sentence out. “I mean, it couldn’t hurt to give it a try, I guess.” He would have called the sensation in his face as being like fire if he didn’t know perfectly well what that _actually_ felt like. 

When he looked back up at Viridian’s face, Adam was a little shocked to see that he was sporting a blush of his own that stretched almost up to the base of his antennae. “That’s great!” he said with a rather forced smile, and Adam was confused as to why until Lazulite shoved Viridian in the shoulder with a gasp.

“No fucking way!” Lazulite yelped, and he turned to stare Adam in the face. “ _No fucking way!_ ” Viridian’s face was even redder, and Lazulite’s wings buzzed excitedly as he grabbed his brother’s shoulders and turned him to face him. “I’m so proud of you! He even said yes!” Then Lazulite let go and whipped back around to Adam, who was beginning to think that he had maybe made a mistake bringing this up right now. “He’s been gabbing about you for _weeks,_ you have no fucking idea holy shit,” and now Lazulite had a hand buried in his hair and he laughed. “Well!” he shouted with hands in the air, a grin on his face and his wings buzzing consistently but softly. “Congratulations, Riddy! Now I won’t ask him out next month.” Lazulite gave Adam a wink, and this was SO confusing. “I told him to make a move sooner rather than later or I was gonna.”

The three of them stood in silence for twenty seconds solid before Adam spoke up. “You didn’t even know what I looked like until now,” he couldn’t help but point out. 

Lazulite laughed. “Yeah but Riddy has been yapping on about you for _ever_ , so I figured you had _something_ going on.” He shrugged. “Honestly I might still try, looking at you.”

Viridian took the time to cap his water bottle before he grabbed it and threw it at his brother, who ducked back and just started laughing. “Gods damn it, Zu, would you leave us alone for all of ten minutes?!” 

“Brothers, I hope you won’t actually only last for-” Lazulite started, but when Viridian jumped at him he ducked back again and raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, alright, _lord,_ I’ll leave you be.” Lazulite’s wings buzzed again, but they were _far_ louder than that soft buzz from before. He rose into the air and flew smoothly backwards before turning and heading off. “I’m gonna go check on the fireworks!” he shouted as he left, presumably to go and make sure they were set up properly. 

Adam’s face was probably as red as Viridian’s still was, but he was nothing if not good at ignoring his emotions. “So what are the fireworks about? I can understand the gift thing, and the heating vents thing is practical enough, but fireworks?”

Viridian seemed grateful for the chance to talk about literally anything other than what had just happened. “Well, yknow, it’s the Solstice.” Adam just pointed at his left eye, and the brand upon it, before Viridian grimaced. “Ah. Right.” He cleared his throat and gestured at the crowd. “Well, we gather around the vents because back in the day people would gather around bonfires they’d set up in the street. This whole thing was always about celebrating the fact that we’re still alive, because…. Well, because by the time spring comes, not all of us will be.” Even Adam could tell the emotion swimming under the carefully neutral expression Viridian wore was sorrow, and he understood it well. Everybody has lost _someone._ “Winter is the harshest season and on Solitas especially, the cold can be lethal. So in the morning, we gather by the hearth and exchange the gifts we made for our family. At noon, we gather around bonfires and celebrate the community around us and the people in it. And at night, we send up a flare so that any who are lost may find their way home.” Viridian looked away, his arms crossed and expression somber. “Way, _way_ back in the day, it was so anybody who’d died in the tundra could find their way home. They wouldn’t hold a funeral until spring, even if they’d managed to recover the body. Then it was just for remembrance, a way to show that we still remembered the people we lost. People switched to fireworks eventually, and it’s still kind of about remembrance.”

Viridian grinned, then, as he turned back to Adam with his antennae propped up in excitement. “Nowadays it’s mostly to fuck with Atlas, though,” he said with a chuckle. “See, fireworks make a lot of smoke, and normally it’s not that much, so you can still see the sky and stuff. But we don’t have to worry about blocking out the stars, so a lot of Mantle fireworks are smokier than normal. It fucks up the navigation systems on Atlas airships, and it also ruins their view of Mantle. I hear the Happy Huntresses make their own fireworks that they launch at _just_ the right spot for the smoke to drift up and block the General’s office window for a bit.” Viridian stared wistfully into the distance, a smile on his face. “What I wouldn’t give to see his face when that happens.”

Adam knew full well that Viridian, of all people, would know perfectly well if those rumors were true since he was damn near single handedly responsible for the materials the Happy Huntresses would need to make them, just like Adam was pretty sure that the fireworks the Frozen Lily was gonna set off were probably on the wrong side of legal. But he wasn’t an idiot, so he wasn’t gonna bring that up in the middle of a public crowd. So Adam just nodded and finished his cider before handing the empty cup to Viridian so he could refill it. “You and me both, honestly. Hell, I don’t think there’s a single person here that would disagree.” Nearly the entirety of this crowd were faunus, although Adam _had_ seen a couple humans. None of them had any cider or food from the grills, but two of them had brought their own snacks and the others had likely just been popping in to see some of their friends. A couple were _definitely_ Atlas plants, though. 

The rest of the evening passed rather quickly, and neither Adam nor Viridian discussed their little ‘get together’ plans again, although they did exchange scroll numbers. Lazulite had popped back over a couple times, but for the most part he seemed to be busy making sure nobody was getting into trouble. Lots of people came up to the table to get some food or cider, and Adam happily stood quietly as they did so. Viridian was the only one he really knew here, although judging by Lazulite’s sheer enthusiasm and apparent love of bothering his brother he got the feeling he’d be seeing a lot of the winged man in the future. Adam ducked into the bar itself a couple times, with Viridian’s permission, to use the bathroom because he’d rather break a public decency law than use those portable bathrooms. Before he knew it he was on his last cup of cider and it was time for the fireworks. 

Viridian ducked into the bar for a moment and came back out with a megaphone, and he hopped onto the table before bringing it to his lips and turning it on with a hiss of static. “ATTENTION!” His voice rang out over the crowd, and everyone shut up pretty much immediately. “IT’S TIME FOR THE FIREWORKS! ANYBODY WHO WANTS TO BUY A LAUNCHER, WE’VE GOT FIFTY TO SPARE BUT IF _ANYBODY_ LAUNCHES THEIR FIREWORK INTO THE CROWD OR AT THE BAR, I _WILL_ FIND OUT WHERE YOU LIVE AND I _WILL_ BE SPREADING THAT INFORMATION TO ANYBODY WHO WILL LISTEN TO ME, UP TO AND INCLUDING THE POLICE. ALSO, LIKE ALWAYS, IF ANYBODY MANAGES TO HIT AN ATLAS DRONE, YOU GET FREE DRINKS FOR A WEEK. DON’T BURN OUR TENTS DOWN.” Then he switched the megaphone off and hopped off the table, smirking at Adam as he tossed the thing onto the table. “So far nobody’s ever hit one, but I _really_ hope someone manages it. I hate those fucking things.”

Adam sipped at his final cider and raised a brow. “I’m sure everyone does, but you seem especially angry at them. Any reason why?” 

Viridian crossed his arms and scowled as he looked up, his antennae folding down to almost touch his own face. “Yeah. It’s illegal to fly without a permit, and on paper it’s illegal to do that so you can’t just go to Atlas without giving them ticket money. Need to be a licensed pilot or being escorted by one to get up there. In _practice,_ though?” He turned to look at Adam, and he knew the gleam in Viridian’s eyes well. “In practice, that law exists so faunus with wings have to stay grounded. It’s not illegal to go to Atlas without a permit, it’s illegal to _fly._ Lazulite isn’t legally allowed to go higher than ten feet off the ground, and he’s six foot four so he can only fly about three and a half feet above the ground. He goes any higher and gets spotted by one of those drones, and they’ll chase him down and fine him on a good day.” The anger in Viridian’s eyes was all too familiar, and it was an anger that Adam felt coiling inside him with every word that was said. Then that anger seemed to drain out of Viridian’s very being, and he sighed. He looked back up at the sky, at the bottom of Atlas, since the table grills and kegs were just past the edge of the cloth roof to prevent smoke collecting. “He finally got his permit application approved last year, but he still won’t do it without a reason. We should have grown up with him being able to go wherever he wanted, but we didn’t. I can’t even imagine what it’s like and I’ve lived with him since I was born. For an entire _direction_ to be forbidden from you, when you’re completely capable of going in it. It’d be like if it was illegal for us to side-step, it’s just-” 

Adam gently rested his hand on Viridian’s shoulder, and he cut himself off and looked at Adam. Whatever he saw, it made his expression soften and he uncrossed his arms. His antennae were hanging loosely, the emotion drained out of them just like the rest of him. The first of the fireworks went off, but neither of them reacted in the slightest. “It’s awful, is what it is,” Adam muttered as he took his hand off Viridian’s shoulder, “and if someone manages to hit one of those things? I’ll give them a hundred lien.”

Viridian laughed, then, and leaned a little closer to him. “Well, hey, if it makes you feel better….” Then he leaned even closer, so he could whisper into Adam’s ear. Viridian's right antenna brushed against his intact horn and Adam tried not to shiver. “He’s been taking them out with his sniper rifle once a week for years.” Then he pulled back out of Adam’s personal space with a smile, and they watched the rest of the fireworks together in silence. 

Far, far above them, far above the festival and far above Mantle itself, even above Atlas, General Ironwood scowled out the window of his office as a cloud of smoke drifted in front of his window. 

Every gods-damned year.

**Author's Note:**

> I have been working on this fucking thing for the past WEEK. I have never done this before! Everything else I've ever written has been in one session, in one sitting, because that's all my brain would let me do. But my brain never let me write so much before, so I figured that maybe for this series I could do something ELSE I've never been able to do before and write this over several sessions. And it worked! I still threw my shoulder out somehow but, whatever.
> 
> I have a LOT worked out for these two ocs of mine, and they WILL be showing up in the future. Nobody really notices these anyways so I doubt I'm ruining the appeal for anybody here. 
> 
> This is the longest thing I have ever written in my life, and might stay that way. I can't say if this took a week because it should have, or if the UNBEARABLE STRESS OF THIS PARTICULAR FIRST WEEK OF NOVEMBER was a contributing factor. I have no idea if this is sustainable, but it's definitely way better than doing each one in a single sitting. I don't know where I want to go with this series, I don't know what I want to do or what will happen. But I know I'm having fun, and I know I'm probably not going to stop on this one.


End file.
